About the President
It is his honest commitment to effect positive change in Benguet State University.
Dr. Ladilad succeeded Dr. Rogelio D. Colting whose term as president for two terms expired on July 31, 2011 and who was assigned as OIC by the Board of Regents until the appointment of Dr. Ladilad as president.
The young Ben D. Ladilad
Dr. Ben D. Ladilad was born in Sumadel, Tadian, Mt. Province one summer, a few decades ago. (May 3, 1951).
He spent his childhood in Sumadel and graduated salutatorian from the Sumadel Elementary School in 1965. A few years later, he finished high school again, as salutatorian from the Pilar Rural School in Pilar, Abra where he was also awarded student leader of the year in 1969.
He is an alumnus of BSU finishing Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Education in 1973 while working as a Farm Aide and Part-Time Gardener at the Mountain Province Development Authority and RAMCAR Chrysanthemum Project. He finished his degree as a scholar under the Mr. Manolo Agustine’s Assistantship Grant (RAMCAR) Company. After finishing his Bachelor’s degree, he was hired as Assistant Instructor of BSU.
He became instructor in 1979 and then an assistant professor in 1980 which is also the year when he finished his Master of Science in Horticulture at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna still as a scholar, this time of UP-PASUC.
As he rose from the ranks, working as Associate Professor for BSU, he was also consultant, technical team leader, farm manager and coordinator of various PCARRD and HARC (now HARRDEC) projects concerning ornamental and medicinal plants. He went to the La Salle-Araneta University for his PhD in Agricultural Science, again, through an Agrotech Assistantship Grant.
Administrative track record
Dr. Ladilad has always been a leader from the start of his career. He was a farm manager for Agro Tech Processing Industries, Inc., coordinator of the ornamental division and head of the Extension Division of BSU’s Horticulture Research and Training Institute, manager of BSU’s Floriculture Agribusiness Project, program leader of the Highland Floriculture Research Development Program and the Integrated Program on Medicinal Plants in the Cordillera Administrative Region among others and Project Director of the Kabuhayan sa Bulaklak Foundation from 1990 until 1992.
All these earned him the Silver Service Award in 1998 from the DOST-CAR in recognition of his 24 years of continuous, satisfactory, dedicated and faithful service to the country as a public servant.
Dr. Ladilad currently chairs the DOST North Luzon Cluster, a position he held since 2007 and secretary of the Cordillera Regional Health Research and Development Committee (CRHRDC) from 2008 up to the present.
He served as member of Board of Trustees and Board of Regents of all the state Colleges and Universities in the Cordillera Administrative Region as early as 1997. He chaired Regional Councils and Committees for the Regional Development Council, Highland Agriculture Resources Research and Development Consortium (HARRDEC), Cordillera Industry Energy Research and Development Consortium (CIERDEC) while serving as Regional Director of the Department of Science and Technology-CAR since 1993.
With Dr. Ladilad as the Regional Director of DOST-CAR, the agency received recognitions from the Civil Service Commission, DTI-Philippine Accreditation Office, Department of Labor and Employment, Government Quality Management Committee, Landbank of the Philippines, Philippine Council for Industry and Energy, Public Service Delivery Audit among others.
Likewise, the Rotary Club of Baguio received the Most Outstanding Club Award for the Rotary Year 2010-2011 with Dr. Ladilad as its president.
Interests
A true blue horticulturist and scientist, Dr. Ladilad is a member to various organizations that share his interests including the Philippine Association for the Advancement of Science, Philippine Association of Agricultural Educators, Philippine Association of Research Managers, Benguet Capitol Jaycees, American Society for Horticulture Science and the Philippine Cordillera Orchid and Ornamental Society, Inc.
He also attended international trainings in various fields including the Australian Leadership Awards and Fellowship Trainor’s Training on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights in Queensland University of Technology at Brisbane Australia in 2008, the training on Strategies for Innovation-Led Sustainable Growth sponsored by the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) held in Stockholm, Sweden in 2007 and its Phase II held at Bangkok, Thailand in 2008; the special training on Ornamental Crop Production, Postharvest Handling and Marketing of the HANS Rosucker Company and University of Minnesota under an IAPM Project Department of Agriculture Scholarship Grant in 1982; and the training on Weapons of Mass Destruction Crisis Response and Consequence Management Seminar sponsored by the National Defense College held at Camp Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, Quezon City in 2000 and another one in Bangkok, Thailand.
BSU Governance, Strategies, Plan of Action & Priorities by Dr. Ben D. Ladilad, Ph.D., CESO III
Governance shall be participatory, a shared obligation and responsibility. The role of the Leadership is to mobilize the manpower and other resources, to nurture the fulfillment of the vision.
Equally, it is to motivate adherence to the accepted code of ethics, pursue resource generation and use it wisely, and heed the welfare of the university constituents. In practical terms, these suggest the following:
1. Leadership by example and discipline.
2. Develop a quality management system for continuous improvement in the delivery of quality products and services.
3. More autonomy or decentralization of functions to various university units.
4. Decisive action- oriented leadership.
5. The participatory approach to management will be applied such that consultations will be practiced and divergent voices shall be heard.
6. Fair and efficient use of resources.
7. Transparency and accountability in institutional matters.
8. Improvement in the quality of Instruction, Research and Extension services as well as the
processes of Production to address present challenges.
9. Establish and implement a comprehensive land use program.